School of Communication and Creative Arts

Research

The School of Communication and Creative Arts (SCCA) conducts research in the broad areas of media and communication, literature and cultural studies, and the creative, digital and performing arts.

Leading expertise and partnerships

Our research is both blue sky and translational, and we partner with a range of arts bodies, major festivals, libraries and schools, community groups, industries, and government at all levels to deliver leading traditional and non-traditional research outcomes.

High-impact researchers in SCCA work across four main fields: communication, writing and literature, art and performance, and screen and design. Our research is focused on the cutting edge of critical, creative and practice-based interventions into real-world problems. Our researchers include award winning artists, writers and performers, leading scholars, and emerging talent across our fields of concern.

Research condensations

Research in the SCCA is organised into ‘condensations’ of research expertise across academic groups and via the four academic groups that cohere around disciplinary knowledge.

Creative technologies

With advanced media facilities, SCCA researchers work at the forefront of digital and virtual-reality technologies. The Deakin Motion.Lab is a hub of research excellence and boundary-pushing collaborations between industry and researchers that brings together live performance and digital effects, with the development of movement- based production techniques, applications, and systems for use in the creative arts and in commercial products.

Learn more about the Deakin Motion.Lab

Public Art Commission

The Public Art Commission (PAC) delivers:

  • curated and commissioned public art projects
  • critical research and evaluation of cultural funding programs and arts initiatives
  • critical and arts-based events for the communities in which we work, the arts sector and industry stakeholders
  • consultancy work that aims to strengthen the arts sector and audience engagement.

In addition to a scholarship that both informs and flows from this work, PAC operates at a time when art produced outside of galleries, theatres and concert venues is continually expanding its significance and value. PAC responds to this and makes work at the intersection of the public and private spheres, when governments and organisations alike are seeking specialist knowledge to markedly improve community ties and the making of places.

Gender and Sexuality Studies

Gender and Sexuality Studies (GSS) at Deakin fosters scholarly, collegial, and community-connected explorations of questions linked to the significance of sex, gender and sexuality in contemporary and historical cultures. As part of its annual calendar of events, the GSS Research Network runs a public seminar series and HDR masterclass on the first Friday of each month.

Learn more about the GSS Research Network

Learn more about our research staff

Our research groups

Our academic staff and higher degree by research students are involved in numerous projects with the following research groups.

Art and Performance

The Art and Performance group produces innovative research in dance, drama, visual art and photography. The group uses multidisciplinary techniques and a variety of research and learning environments to generate a broad range of knowledge.

Learn more about the Art and Performance research group

Writing and Literature

The Writing and Literature group includes critical and creative scholars working at the forefront of socially engaged literary criticism, poetic practice, and gender and sexuality studies. The group includes expertise in contemporary poetry, children's literature, Australian literature, genre fiction, environmental literature, reading communities, medievalisms, gender and sexuality studies, postcolonialism, place studies and philosophy and literature.

Learn more about the Writing and Literature research group

Communication

Exploring the definitions of 'publics' and 'citizenship', the communication research group is interested in questions that speak to our rights and responsibilities in the age of new media.

Learn more about the Communication research group

Screen and Design

Spanning film, television, animation and design studies, the Screen and Design research group covers a broad, fertile range of inquiry, with an emphasis on both theory and practice. With studies reaching fro film archives to the representations of personal identity, the group produces researching at the cutting-edge of the field. A critical initiative involves collaborative research with emerging and immersive technologies.

Learn more about the Screen and Design research group

Asian Media and Cultural Studies Network

The Asian Media and Cultural Studies Network is a transdisciplinary group drawing on scholars from across the arts, social science and humanities disciplines. They undertake comparative and cross-cultural work, particularly in the areas of digital media production, youth cultures, national and regional identities and cultures of fame.

Find out more about the network

Contact us

The school welcomes enquiries from the media, prospective industry partners and future research students.

SCCA research enquiries
Dr Emily Potter
Associate Head of School (Research)
+61 3 9244 6842
Email Dr Potter

For all queries about undertaking higher degrees by research at the SCCA, please contact Associate Professor Patrick West.

SCCA HDR enquiries
Helen Young
+61 3 9244 6289
Email Helen Young

Rea Dennis
+61 3 9246 8234
Email Rea Dennis